The Project

What is the »conditio extraterrestris«?

The entire complex of representations that assume the existence of
an inhabited, or inhabitable, outer space is what we understand by conditio extraterrestris. Therefore, conditio extraterrestris embraces
literary fiction, reflections on media theory and philosophical and theological
speculations besides astronomical and astrobiological investigations. To the
extent that the project conceives outer space as the historical outcome of interlacing
poetics of knowledge, it will shed light on the aesthetic and the historical aspect
of extraterrestrial phantasy as well as on the cultural and theoretical principles
of present-day, and future, expeditions into the universe.

What engages our interest?

Astronomy’s exploration of the universe is linked with the rise of
an extraterrestrial phantasy. Yet, a vivid interest in the constellations of
planets is far from being the only issue at stake; but also, and even more so, how
life is being led, or could be led, in alien worlds. On these
grounds, literary imagination acquires a coordinating function since it
mediates the imagery of alien worlds and beings while its narratives depict the
inhabited galaxy as an emerging order that carries meaning for human beings and
their cultures of knowledge (i.e. from Christian theology of creation to the Theory
of Evolution).